Peh reveals how she prepares for intimate scenes

Local stars Joanne Peh and Pierre Png play a couple in Channel 8's drama series "Pillow Talk", following their previous collaboration in "Your Hand in Mine" in 2009. But, this is the first time the two are getting intimate onscreen -- in numerous scenes. "The intimate scenes came very naturally because we wanted it (the relationship) to be real," Peh said at the press conference of "Pillow Talk", a drama series which depicts the married life of four wedded couples. Peh plays Zhang Qiuxue, the love interest of He Tingkai, portrayed by Png. The 30-year-old actress added there were no awkward moments between Png and herself while filming those scenes. "We didn't want to come off as being contrived just because Pierre is married and I am dating Bobby (Tonelli ) in real life. "We didn't want viewers to go like, 'ok, we know both of you are not (dating for) real,' so, to make our relationship feel as real as possible, we had to invest a lot more time and emotions to discuss and rehearse our scenes," said the actress who has been dating Singapore-based radio DJ-actor Bobby Tonelli for the past three years. Peh professed that not only had Png and herself started preparing for a "challenging" scene one month before filming, they had also requested to drink real red wine during the shoot so as to "let the emotions flow. "It was the scene where I return him (He) the wedding ring because he hit me (Zhang). "It's unheard of, or so I was told; but that scene [required] us to relax and not over-think things, so as to be more realistic in terms of emotions," shared Peh, who felt a genuine heartache when she filmed that break-up scene. Sharing her experience of playing Zhang, Peh said, "I came to realise that relationships are not like fairytales – it's not all fluffy and beautiful – there are always things that two people have to work it out together. [Qiuxue] was someone that I was, maybe five years ago. However, as the drama unfolds, this character grows to a stage where her thoughts are more like me now." In "Pillow Talk", Peh's character was scarred by love because of her shattered marriage with He. And that made Peh develop reservations about marriage. "After I read the script, I wondered if I would discriminate marriage. I can't be sure now," replied Peh, when asked if she has a no-marriage ideology. For Peh, love is not equivalent to marriage. "Marriage is a choice; love is not. "For marriage, you and your partner mutually choose to be in this legal contract, but for love, it is not a choice, you can't choose who you love or who you don't want to love," said Peh.